AAFF

The Asian American Federation of Florida (AAFF) is a 501(c)(3) coalition that aims to
unity and collaboration among the various Asian Pacific American organizations and to improve the relationship of a culturally diverse Asian Pacific American community in Florida. The AAFF is a statewide organization made
up of more than 70 Bangladesh, Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Iranian,
Korean, Laotian, Taiwanese, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese community-based organizations,
businesses and media.

2015 Advancing Justice Policy Platform

March 10, 2015

Asian Americans Advancing Justice has released our 2015 Advancing Justice Policy Platform, which includes recommendations for legislative and administrative action on our four policy priorities. While the Asian Americans Advancing Justice affiliates work on a range of issues beyond those highlighted in this platform, this provides a road map for much of our current advocacy work. Below is an overview:

Preserving and protecting voting rights: voting is a fundamental cornerstone to democracy. While Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (NHPI) are voting in greater numbers and becoming more politically engaged, they also experience discrimination that limits their full participation in the political process. It is critical that the protection provided by the Voting Rights Act (“VRA”) be restored even as we work to better support the engagement of Asian American and NHPI voters through improved implementation and enforcement of language access protections, including Section 203 of the VRA; as well as enactment of legislation that would allow increase access, such as same day voter registration and early voting.

Advancing immigration reform: three key statistics demonstrate the stake that Asian Americans have in immigration reform: nearly 40 percent of all immigrants to the U.S. come from Asia, approximately 1.2 million of Asian Americans are undocumented, and 60 percent of Asian Americans are foreign born. We offer recommendations for improving our immigration system, including reducing family visa backlogs; supporting immigrant and refugee integration; ending programs that involve local law enforcement in federal immigration enforcement; prohibiting racial, ethnic, and religious profiling; and ensuring judicial discretion, fairness, and due process in immigration hearings and detention.

Upholding access to affordable health care: with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), many previously-uninsured Asian Americans and NHPI now have access to affordable health insurance. Even as we continue to support outreach to limited English proficient and other hard-to-reach segments of our communities, we also advocate against efforts to repeal, weaken or de-fund the ACA.

Ensuring disaggregated data: it is of vital importance that all communities are counted accurately. Disaggregated data are critical to understanding the tremendous social and economic diversity of Asian American and NHPI populations. We call for sufficient funding for thorough testing and planning for the 2020 Census and the ongoing American Community Survey in order to ensure that these tools capture information on all segments of the population, including traditionally undercounted groups: people of color, children, rural communities, and low-income households.